4 comments:

It must be about the 'transgender community', that group we all belong to willingly or not. It is a 'we' thing. 'We' are a misunderstood and minority group with a yearning to be plain ordinary citizens, as if we were simply French emigrees (or emigres) permanently settled in the UK (or anywhere else) and wanting to get on with useful and fulfilling lives, including all the enjoyments that everyone else has. But 'they' won't let us. Some people out there want to put us down, mock us, and even kill us. So we are commemorating martyrs, and the whole thing has something in common with the Poppy Day Remembrance ceremony. Those who died might be seen by some as soldiers who died for the cause. Others might see them as innocent victims of unreasoning and inexcusable hate. The majority feeling seems to be that, heroic or pathetic, they ought not to be forgotten or passed over.

Is it now a circus? Like the weekly parades in Wootton Bissett? Personally I don't think so - yet. That said, it could all turn into a Mardi Gras if social conditions relax and the deaths become 'big news items' that the media can employ to win viewers or readers. I won't be attending a TDOR event when that happens, any more than I would take part in a Pride march or (come to that) the Notting Hill Festival.

There's a song by Pulp called 'Misfits' (on their Different Class album) that seems to apply quite well to trans folk!